Do you even remember why you started making music?
Do you remember the magic of it all & the excitement of thinking, “anything is possible”?
Do you remember embracing the mystery of it? Just playing notes, turning knobs and seeing what sounds came out of your instrument?
How do we get back to this?
I think knowing too much can actually make you stagnant.
The moment you develop the “right” way of doing something, you start cutting out all the other possibilities. I’m not saying having a process is a bad thing. Not at all. But if that’s the only hat you ever wear in the studio, when do you get a chance to play? When do you get a chance to just see what happens?
I think we’re being flooded with so much information about the right way to do things that we’re slowly learning to trust our own opinions and discoveries less & less.
Have you noticed how much music sounds kinda the same?
Even when you cross genres, you’re hearing the same sounds, the same effects, the same types of mixes, the same song structures.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that when you’re in the “learn by emulating” phase. That’s actually a great way to learn. But it doesn’t do much to help music evolve into new territories.
Keep in mind that some of the most beloved instruments in modern electronic music were considered complete failures at the time.
Nobody wanted them.
Think about the Roland TR-808 or the TB-303. They failed at their original purpose for “proper” musicians, but a younger generation eventually got their hands on them when they were practically being given away. They weren’t particularly concerned with how these instruments were supposed to be used.
And that’s kinda the point.
By looking at this gear from a different perspective, what was considered wrong became about as right as you can get in a modern studio.
David Bowie once talked about creativity like being out in the ocean. If your feet are planted firmly on the ground, you’re probably too comfortable. But when you’re just a little farther out, where your feet are barely touching the bottom, that’s where you’re in the right place for something interesting to happen.
If we’re honest with ourselves, a lot of the best music has been made by people who barely knew what they were doing.
They were too new to know how a chord progression was “supposed” to go, so they leaned into whatever stirred their interest. They didn’t know that certain sounds weren’t supposed to work together. They didn’t know the proper way to mix something. They just knew when something made them feel something.
The best music isn’t intellectual. It’s emotional.
There’s a reason popular music isn’t simply populated by the world’s most technically accomplished musicians. Sometimes the best idea isn’t particularly impressive in a technical sense. It just strikes an emotional chord within you.
And perfection will never sound completely authentic.
People aren’t sitting around judging whether you used the perfect sound. Sure, occasionally something stands out because it’s operating at an incredibly high level, but I think it’s really interesting when you discover how many of those “perfect” sounds we’re all clamoring for were simply artists using whatever instruments they had available.
A lot of the time, strip away the processing, effects and context and the sound itself is pretty average.
The magic was what they did with it.
So I would encourage you to spend more time playing.
Let the imperfections guide you. Let your emotions tell you what’s interesting and what isn’t. Turn the wrong knob. Play the wrong note. Try the thing you’re pretty sure isn’t going to work.
It’s okay if you derail from the track a little bit. Interesting things can happen there.
You can always come back later and put on your technical producer hat.
But maybe give the kid in you enough time to deliver a magical mess first.
Happy music making,
Jason
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The Mental Game of Music Production
The Process for Electronic Music Producers
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Happy music making!
Jason